The Beginning: 12th October 2014

Spent some time in Restov on the border of Brevoy to pick up some gear and meet my new crew. Received the charter from the Swordlords, giving authority to deal with the bandits and such infesting the Greenbelt and to explore the region, mapping out the area. An interesting mix, this new crew of mine, led by Raelyn, a tall lassy, who looks handy with that sword on her hip. Khevlar, a dour, tight lipped dwarven cleric and Soren, a male witch of all things, I certainly do not want to get on the wrong side of one of his hexes. Luckily, I have my pet to keep me company. Since I rescued him from that silly travelling circus, Stampy has been my constant companion. Who knows, we may even pick up a few more friends in our travels.

So with my horse all packed, I leapt upon my mastodon’s saddle and rode off into the unknown companions in tow. First stop was a rundown fort, pretending to be a trading post, not far across the border. This unique “fixer-upper” was owned by Oleg and his wife Svetlana. The interesting pair welcomed us warmly and invited us to share a meal. Svetlana turned out to be a pretty good cook and served up a tasty stew for dinner. Oleg then shared his troubles, telling us about a group of a dozen bandits that had shown up three months earlier and demanded all the trading goods. Their leaders were a cloaked male and a hatchet wielding woman who did all the talking. She had even stolen Sveta’s wedding ring. Then on the first day of each month the cloaked leader and some thugs had arrived to receive their “taxes” of trading goods. Oleg then pointed out that they were due back tomorrow and asked if we would help with the problem? If we could dispatch of the bandits, he would gladly hang their corpses from the battlements to discourage the others. We felt this was a little too gruesome for our tastes, but were quite happy to plan out a little ambush for the bandits the next day.

I hid Stampy and myself in the stable, and was joined by Soren, while Raelyn and Kvelar hid in the guest rooms. We waited for the bandits to arrive and Oleg to give the signal, some strange code phrase about pineapples. I really didn’t understand the reference, but when the others charged out, I spurred Stampy forward and attacked. I don’t think the bandits had expected any trouble as there were just the four of them, the cloaked leader and three thugs. We surprised them, especially the poor fellow who ended up impaled on Stampy’s tusks. At the gruesome sight, the other thugs decided to hoof it, one fellow raced out the gate but I chased him down. The other guy tried to climb the wall and just ended up impaling himself and had to be rescued by Khevlar who spent most of the battle patching up the holes Raelyn put in the bandits while Soren tossed hexes around. Soon the battle was over and we tied up the survivors while Khevlar revived them for questioning.

We lined the sorry pair up at the front gate with nooses around the necks and tied off the leader to Stampy. He wasn’t talking though so Raelyn gave the signal and I led Stamps forward hoisting the leader into the air. He didn’t last long and he soon choked. With his leader dead, the last bandit soon started spilling his guts telling us the camp lay to the southeast down on the Thorn river near the edge of the forest. We decided it a little callous to kill him after he talked, so Soren cursed him and told him to give up banditry or he would die a horrible death. I think the guy even believed him. We banished him from the Greenbelt with a horse and a full water bottle, then stabled the remaining five horses the bandits had arrived on and collected the gear they no longer needed.

Then it was time to celebrate our first victory and tuck in to some more of Svetlana’s excellent stew.